bigglesfandomcom-20200215-history
Polikarpov I-15
In Biggles in Spain, Jock McLannock was described as flying a squat, blunt-nosed fighter painted blue and his frequent appearance over the lines of the Republican troops earned him the nickname "The Blue Devil". As Ginger was posted to Jock's squadron and later flew a patrol under Cy Harkwell, it is reasonable to assume that Ginger flew the same aircraft type and scored the second of his two aerial victories in it. There are a number of clues about the identity of this fighter: *It was of a type unfamiliar to Ginger. This would rule out the ex-British fighters that the Republican Air Force might have been using. When flying it for the first time, he was relieved to find that there was nothing unfamiliar about the controls or the instruments. *It was a biplane. Jock was trapped by a flying wire after he crashed. When Ginger was in a dogfight, there is this line in the text: "A burst of bullets ripped through the centre of his top plane...." *It had a fixed undercarriage. When Jock was crash-landing, the impact tore the undercarriage off. Ginger's fighter had yellow wheels. When following Biggles in his stolen Caproni bomber, Ginger repeatedly pitched up so that Biggles could see his yellow wheels and recognise him. The most likely aircraft that would fit these attributes would be the Russian Polikarpov I-15. The I-15 was introduced in 1934 and served with the Russian forces in large numbers. More than a hundred were also delivered to Spain and together with the monoplane Polikarpov I-16, the I-15, nicknamed "Chato", was one of the mainstays of the Republican fighter force throughout the war. While it would be outclassed by some of the modern fighter types introduced by Germany, it performed creditably against its main rival, the Fiat CR.32. Its kill/loss ratio was quite similar to the Fiat and this can be seen in the novel where sometimes the Fiats would shoot down a I-15 and at other times the I-15 would be victorious against the Fiats. The I-15 biplane had a squat fuselage and its large radial engine gave it a blunt, snub-nosed appearance. It had a spatted fixed undercarriage and one can well imagine the spats could be painted a variety of colours for easy identification. The picture on the frontispiece of the 1st ed. drawn by Howard Leigh shows Ginger about to jump off his burning fighter. It looks like Leigh intended to depict Ginger's fighter as a Polikarpov I-16--this was also one of the more well-known among the Republican fighters. Leigh was however inaccurate in showing the I-16 with a fixed undercarriage. The I-16 is a monoplane with a retractable undercarriage. The text clearly points to Ginger's aircraft being a biplane. In derivative works In the Miklo graphic novel Neiges mortelles, Biggles and co. flying in a Handley Page H.P. 42 are intercepted by a Polikarpov but managed to evade it by hiding in fog. In this case, it was an advanced variant of the I-15, the I-153, with more powerful armament and retractable undercarriage. The story is set in 1951. The aircraft came from the Chinese Air Force (in that era, it would be in the early years of the formation of the People's Liberation Army Air Force). The Chinese Nationalist forces were equipped with various Russian types such as the I-15 and I-16 which they used throughout the Chinese civil war and World War 2. The PLA obtained various aircraft from them by capture or defection and the presence of the I-153 in the inventory of the PLAAF is entirely plausible. In 1951, the PLAAF had just received the MiG-15 (also encountered earlier in the sotry) but there weren't enough of the jets. So it is plausible that the old inventory of aircraft continued to soldier on for a while, especially in more remote areas where opposition wasn't expected. Specifications *Crew: one *Length: 6.10 m (20 ft) *Wingspan: 9.75 m (32 ft) *Empty weight: 1,012 kg (2,231 lb) *Loaded weight: 1,415 kg (3,120 lb) *Engine: 1 × M-22 radial engine, 473 hp *Maximum speed: 350km/h (220mph) *Range: 500 km (310 mi) *Service ceiling: 7,250 m (23,800 ft) *Armament **4 × 7.62mm machine guns **100kg of bombs or rockets Category:Aircraft Category:Actual aircraft Category:Aircraft (canonical works)